Marquette County climate draft seeks your opinion

MARQUETTE COUNTY, Mich. (WLUC) — A climate action plan for Marquette County is ready for you to review.

The initial draft of the Marquette County Climate Action Plan focuses on adapting to climate change and mitigating it. The goal is to make the county carbon neutral by 2050.

The plan focuses on tracking emissions and how to mitigate them. Marquette County’s Climate Adaptation Coordinator Nicolaas Vermaat says the plan also prepares for extreme weather events like flooding and wildfires.

“Adaptation is an effort to adjust for the impacts of climate change. While mitigation is an effort to reduce climate change, so it is usually an effort to reduce emissions. So this plan includes both of those. So, it’s a bit larger scope than some previous climate plans for the area,” Vermaat said.

The Superior Watershed Partnership is one community partner that helped draft this plan. Special Projects Coordinator for the SWP Kathleen Henry said the involvement from the county helps bolster climate change efforts.

“I think that the strategies that have been identified are crucial. So, the SWP really looks forward to helping implement those plans and continuing to as we have partnered with the city and the county in the past,” Henry said.

Strategies include expanding EV infrastructure and developing a renewable energy storage center for emergencies for the county. Vermaat says the big push now is receiving public comments about the draft.

“We’re hoping that people have general feedback on specific strategies. If we’re missing any responsible parties that you think are really important and necessary for those goals and strategies. Then just generally whether the goals and strategies cover what people expect a climate action plan would cover for Marquette County,” Vermaat said.

Public comment will end on March 24. The results will be shared with the Marquette County Board of Commissioners in April.

You can provide comments about the climate plan at nvermaat@mqtco.org.

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